Ireland

FamilySearch.org's one-size-fits-all search form can mislead
beginners. The indexes don't include spouse or parents, apart from the
birth index from c1928-1958, which includes mother's maiden surname
only. To narrow the search, you can fill in one of (a) birth date
and/or place (b) marriage date and/or place or (c) death date and/or
place. The appropriate placename to use is the Poor Law Union (see
below). Filling in fields which are blank in the record you want will
prevent you from finding it. More details here

To narrow the search, you can fill in both parents' first and/or last
names and/or birth date and/or place. The appropriate placename to use
varies from record to record. Try townland or dispensary district or
Poor Law Union or county.

To narrow the search, you can fill in spouse's and/or father's first
and/or last names and/or marriage date and/or place. Irish marriage
certificates did not include the name of either the groom's mother or
the bride's mother. The appropriate placename to use is generally the
parish.

To narrow the search, you can fill in death date and/or death place
and/or residence place. Irish death certificates did not include the
name of any relative, unless the informant happened to be a relative,
and even then the relationship may not have been specified. If it was,
then the relationship may be shown in the transcript. The appropriate
placename to use is generally the townland.

In some non-Irish records the familysearch.org transcriptions may
include father's first name, mother's first name and mother's last
name, but not father's last name! See, for example, many entries in New
Jersey, Marriages, 1678-1985. You must leave the father's last name
blank if you want to find these records.

Griffiths Valuation, printed in 1855 for most of county Clare, is
continued up to around the abolition of rates in 1977 in Valuation
Office cancelled books, Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street, Dublin; e.g.,
Moore
Street, Kilrush

Copy and paste the web address/location/URL where you find your online
information from the Address Bar (the bar where www.pwaldron.info currently
appears) to the notes field in your genealogy database

Mozilla Firefox:

Right-click on a link to the page or file that you want and select
Copy Link Location (keyboard shortcut: A)

(Note that in facebook comments there are two links, the top one to
the specific page, the one underneath to the website home page.)

For each townland, the database shows in which County, Barony, Civil
Parish, Poor Law Union and Province it lies

Minor typos: ENNIS T. omitted; Termon West in Kilferagh, not
Kilfearagh; Doonogan listed as being in Clonderalaw Barony and Killimer Civil Parish, but is actually in Ibrickan Barony and Kilmurry Civil Parish

Names are not unique: 236 townlands called Glebe

Parish name usually used to distinguish between two townlands with
the same name, e.g. Acres [Drumcreehy], Acres [Feakle], Acres
[Kilmacduane]

But once railway transport became commonplace, strong farmers and the
merchant class often travelled to a more fashionable big town or city
for weddings, e.g. Ennis, Limerick, Dublin, even London, nowadays
Rome

Check whether the townland in which your ancestors lived was always
in the same Catholic parish that it is in today

If PLU and Dispensary District boundaries did not respect parish
boundaries, then marriages in the local church could be registered in a
different PLU or Dispensary District from home births and deaths

e.g., there are eight
townlands in Kilmurry Ibrickan civil parish which lie in Ennistimon
Poor Law Union, with the remainder of the civil parish, including the
churches, in Kilrush PLU

e.g., Killaloe is both a town in county Clare and a diocese extending over
parts of counties Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Offaly and Laois,
extending almost (but not quite) as far as Borris-in-Ossory
in the Diocese of Ossory.

Canon Law gives parish clergy responsibility for Catholic parish
registers, but they are usually influenced by diocesan policy

Doonbeg DED provides good examples of most of the anomalies that can
arise in dealing with Irish administrative divisions. Doonbeg DED
comprises eight townlands. Doonbeg townland is divided into two parts
for the 1911 census, Doonbeg Town and plain Doonbeg, the rural part of
the townland. In local usage, parts of Doonbeg townland are known by
local names such as Rhynagonaught. Five of the eight townlands are in
Killard civil parish and the other three in Kilmacduane civil parish.
The Killard townlands and one of the Kilmacduane townlands (Acres) are
in Ibrickan barony; the other two Kilmacduane townlands are in Moyarta
barony. Three of the Killard townlands (Cloonmore, Carrowmore and
Carrowmore North), along with Cloonnagarnaun in Cloonadrum DED, are
known locally as Clohanes, and are separated from the rest of Killard
parish by the Scivileen river. The road from Clohanes to the rest of
Doonbeg parish goes through Kilmacduane parish. Carrowmore South
townland, which does not adjoin Carrowmore North townland, is in
Knocknagore DED but still in Killard civil parish.